Year-round promotions have entrenched NZ venison in Europe, which is breaking with tradition and slowly developing a taste for venison as a summer grilling item.
Northern Europe now accounts for 35% of exports.
That’s even with the industry’s success in building year-round venison demand in other markets, Deer Industry NZ venison marketing manager Nick Taylor said.
“Because of successful market diversification the percentage is well down on what we were seeing 10 years ago but the northern European game season remains and is likely to remain one of our most important markets.”
In September DINZ executive chef Graham Brown spent three weeks in Europe working with Europe-based chef Shannon Campbell.
The pair supported venison marketers and their in-market partners in Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands as they laid the groundwork for the 2018 game season.
The long, hot European summer delayed the start of the game season this year but chefs at NZ venison promotions were still ordering good quantities for their new menus.
With prices for traditional saddle and leg cuts at historically high levels there’s been a lot of interest from chefs in new and less expensive cuts.
“Chefs love anything different and challenging so it helps extend their repertoire.
“It also provides a great opportunity for the industry to get better value from the whole carcase,” Brown said.
The Swedish activity, which involved a week of demonstrations and hands-on chef and buyer education, went particularly well.
It was followed by another week in Belgium with importer Bimpex, which partners with venison exporters Alliance and Duncan NZ.
Brown and Campbell also supported importers Kiplama at a hospitality show in the Netherlands while Campbell worked with Silver Fern Farms in photoshoots for its game season promotions and in-store tastings in wholesale markets.
At Busche Gala, an annual event in Germany where the country’s gourmet guide is launched, DINZ organised the promotion of NZ venison (Neuseelandhirsch).
“Among many other promotional activities we have also been engaging with journalists and bloggers around Germany, hosting a number of private dinners where they can spend time with prestigious chefs who are supporters of NZ venison,” Taylor said.
The deer industry is largely founded on demand from the northern European game season and until recent years has been the main focus of NZ’s venison exports.
Reliance on a single, highly seasonal market is deemed a risk for the industry and venison marketers have worked hard to mitigate that risk.
Through the diversification of markets strategy the United States two years ago become the largest year-round market for chilled cuts.
In the same period the US also became a major market for manufacturing grade venison.
“In Europe the industry continues to build a preference for NZ farm-raised venison over venison from other suppliers.
“In recent years, because of growing consumer and chef demand for local produce, the challenge of selling products from the other side of the world has become greater,” Taylor said.
DINZ and venison marketers stress the high standards of food safety and great eating quality that allow the NZ provenance to get cut-through.
Another, more challenging, ambition has been to build European demand for NZ venison outside the game season.
Making that happen has been a key part of the deer industry’s Primary Growth Partnership programme, Passion2Profit (P2P).
“Because eating venison in summer is a novel concept for European chefs and consumers we have promoted summer sales under the banner of Cervena, an appellation that was new to Europe.
“This means some leading food service outlets are promoting Cervena in summer and NZ venison in winter. There’s a clear differentiation.”
The summer Cervena programme began four years ago in the Netherlands and Belgium and two years ago was extended to Germany.
Sales quickly built to 90 tonnes, worth almost $3m, but are likely to grow only slowly from those levels while venison production remains at its 20-year low.
Three of the five venison marketers are actively involved but all share marketing insights and information with each other and DINZ as part of P2P.
DINZ is working with a select group of innovative chefs who are looking to differentiate their menus and meet the needs of more adventurous diners.
“We are building a strong understanding of what works in the summer market so we can scale up when supply increases.”
